Daily Links: Allergic-to-Bees Edition

While pressure-washing the sidewalk on Friday, I disturbed a nest of bees (or hornets or wasps — they’re all the same to me). Two of them stung my right hand. Within 24 hours, it had swollen like a balloon. Even after the doctor prescribed medication, the swelling spread to my forearm. It was like I had a meat claw!

Fortunately, things had mostly returned to normal by Sunday evening, which gave me time to piece together this morning’s post. The side effects of the bee-sting medication — alertness — also gave me a chance to stay awake until 3 a.m. Allow me to share some of the stories I read to occupy my time:

First, at the Wall Street Journal personal-finance blog, Isaac Yoder writes about trying to correct a bank’s $25/month mistake. It’s not a pleasant experience. His conclusion, though, echoes one of my money mantras: Nobody cares more about your money than you do. Always check your bills and statements, and always stand up for yourself if you spot a problem.

While doing research for a future post, I found a fantastic niche blog: 60 & Single will only be applicable to a handful of GRS readers, but I believe it’s a great resource for its intended audience.

At Blueprint for Financial Prosperity, Jim has come up with an idea that intrigues me: the financial network map. He writes: “A financial network map is a one-page diagram that shows the links and relationships between each of your financial accounts, which include but are not limited to bank, brokerage, mutual fund, retirement, credit card, and service accounts.” Jim’s visual aid makes the concept clear.

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hey:
Your steroid is most likely Prednisone. As others are pointing out, Benadryl which people use to help with the histamine reaction would knock out that alertness for you. 🙂

I would just like to debunk #29 Claire. Sorry Claire, but if you have spreading redness and swelling from the site of a wound, it is likely a skin infection or cellulitis. You should NOT use colloidal silver, you should get antibiotics from a doctor. There is no evidence that colloidal silver works for any medical condition. You simply got lucky. Not treating spreading skin infections is very dangerous and can result in sepsis (blood infection) and death or loss of limb.

Despite your impressive swelling, I can tell by your normal hand that you are not allergic to bee stings. If you were, your other hand, and probably your face and feet would have swelled up as well. If the swelling is localized, like yours, that is not an allergic reaction, and it’s not going to kill you. Just make you itchy and uncomfortable for a while.

So don’t worry about getting stung again. If you get stung a lot, you won’t even swell up anymore, although it will still hurt for a couple of minutes.

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Gerard

Woah!! That’s some insane swelling!! Hope you feel better…

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Claire

Well, I can empathize because I had a nasty swelled up hand a few weeks back from a cut I gave myself accidentally. Picture your hand, but black and blue too. Like you, mine was spreading too. I tried to go to the doctor, but that was a long story. I ended up taking colloidal silver and it worked.

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Charlotte

You should have a collection of “back-up” posts when these things happen or other incidents. I guess you do have a collection of guest posts.

Maybe pick some less interesting topics for back-ups…just a thought.

-Charlotte

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Miss M

Yikes, that looks scary. Have you ever had a reaction before? I’ve been stung a few times and never had more than a bump. You should definitely keep benedryl in the house, just in case you get stung again or react to something else.

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Rachel

Haha – I don’t mean to laugh, but I compared your hand picture to my 2 year olds chubby mitt, and you now have the hand of a giant toddler!

I have a similar reaction to yellow jacket bites. I was stung multiple times in the calf once while mowing the lawn and my leg looked like your hand. It itched so bad I nearly drew blood clawing at those things, and eventually had to get a steroid shot to slow the swelling.

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Gwendally

As a beekeeper I just want to point out that those were almost certainly NOT honey bees, and you aren’t showing “allergic” signs, you’re showing a normal localized reaction (that everyone would have) to the sting. An allergic reaction is when it shows signs of being systemic: you’re stung on the hand and your throat closes up, or you get hives on your stomach, or your eyes swell.

A systemic allergic reaction can kill you and it’s a good idea to carry an epipen if you are prone to those. But having a limb or a joint swell up, as unhappy as that is, won’t kill you.

It will, on the other hand, kill off all your necessary pollinators if people keep objecting to bee hives because they’re “allergic to bees” when they actually mean they “react to wasp stings normally.” 🙂

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SteveB

Wow, it’s like the Foo Fighters’ Everlong video.

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SF

We keep benedryl on hand and immediately take one tablet if we’re ever stung. You’ll sleep for hours. I’ve been stung many times and always swelled up in the past. Not anymore.

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Writer’s Coin

Yikes, that’s kinda scary. As for the New Yorker articles, do you subscribe? I’m curious what you think about the fiction and if you read it or now. I’ve been a subscriber for almost a year now and I waver about whether or not I’ll re-up.

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Lorna

This reminded me of my own case of wasp sting; I got stung on the tip of my right toe, and 10 mins later I was brought into the emergency room blacking out from the poison and having trouble breathing. Anyways, glad yours is healing well, and thanks for the links, especially the last one!

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bakednudel

So glad you got to the urgent care and are better today–it is sobering to realize how much your job is related to the ability to use your hands! Food for thought? How can self-employed folks get disability insurance?

Thanks for the tip about the over 60 blog! Although I’m not there yet it’s right on the horizon.

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Shirley

Hopefully, you’re back to normal today, J.D.

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KC

And one more thing…if you ever get stung on your left hand – take your wedding ring off immediately. If you don’t they’ll have to cut it off (your ring, not your finger 🙂

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RJ

Hey J.D., I always knew you were a “swell” guy. I wish you a speedy recovery.

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Chris from St. Mary’s

I react similar to that to wasps, bees, and sometimes mosquitos (there’s some wonderful pictures of me as a child like this).

I know where urgent care is, and the first thing I do is head for Benadryl as soon as I get bit.

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sara l

Glad you’re starting to feel better.

My husband and I have different insurance. I have an HMO, so where I can go is fairly restricted. In my service directory I circled the urgent care and hospital options in the event that I need care but can’t communicate.

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Four Pillars

Holy cow – I never would have believed your hand could swell up like that without the photo.

Stay away from those bees!

Mike

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KC

And don’t you love how these things always happen to the dominant hand (I’m assuming you are a righty). I had a tendon issue in my right hand and had to have surgery – couldn’t move my fingers for 2 weeks w/o a great deal of pain. I learned how utterly incompetent I am with my left hand – couldn’t write, use the computer, could barely drive. It was awful. Glad you are doing better.

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Lainie

Oh dear – I have the same reaction to wasp stings. It’s awful. I’m glad it was your hand and not your neck, though. How on earth did you type?

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A. Dawn

i hope your right hand is doing a lot better now. No once cares about your money – I actually have a post called No One Cares About Your Money – http://adawnjournal.com/2008/04/15/no-one-cares-about-your-money/
Today, at a coffee shop, my bill came to $12.80. I got suspicious and asked the cashier to recalculate again. I found out that she charged about $6 extra and finally she returned me $6. Had I not been paying attention(usually we never do), I would have lost this $6 for no reason.
Cheers,
A Dawn Journal

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J.D.

@Charlotte
I’d actually intended to write a little about Cyber Monday (I wanted two small posts), but after I was stung, there were 48 hours when I could not write. Once I was able to type again, I decided to use the piece that was closest to being ready!

I’ve joked in the past about “blogging accidents”, but this incident has made me realize just how important my hands are to me. 🙂

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Peggy

You are so fortunate that your bad reaction was so localized. I keep an epi-pen in my purse because two of my daughters and I are allergic to the point that we stop breathing if we are stung!

But that is a pretty nasty meat claw!

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fivecentnickel.com

Yikes, it looks like that hand belongs to Fat Bastard of Austin Powers fame.

I read the Bernanke article the other day, and thought it was excellent. The other “required reading” I’ve seen recently is Michael Lewis’ portfolio.com brilliant article about Steve Eisman, the guy who saw all of this coming.

Get better soon! (I know you suffered for it, but that’s a great photo).

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J.D.

Thanks, Leigh. I’m doing much better today. The swelling and pain are gone. Now it just itches and is a little tight.

Whatever the steroid is (and it’s a steroid), it has me in a strange state of mixed exhaustion and alertness. I can’t really sleep, but my body is tired. (I’ve only averaged about four hours of sleep each night since being stung. I hope that tonight will be much, much different.)

I have to tell a funny part of this story (funny to me, anyhow) that wouldn’t fit on the blog.

Earlier on Friday, I had walked to the grocery store to pick up some milk. (We’re doing twice-a-month shopping, if you remember.) On my way out, I bumped into a GRS reader named Aaron. Aaron was sick. “Do you know where the nearest urgent care facility is?” he asked. I told him I didn’t, and that I’d never needed one. Wasn’t I lucky?

As I walked home, I thought to myself, “Maybe I should figure out where the nearest urgent care facility is.”

Well. The morning after I was stung, as the swelling just got worse and worse, I suddenly wanted to know where the nearest urgent care facility is. It was far too difficult to find out. Eventually I *did* locate it, but it took far too much work to do so.

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